If I am reading this correctly, the deadliest drugs are opiates that result in death due to abuse.And then Remicade.Since Remicade is not a drug of abuse and is not self administered, that means that Remicade is the most dangerous drug used as intended.

Somebody please tell me I’m wrong.This is a very frightening piece of information.

"Furberg’s study did not distinguish between medical use and abuse of opioid painkillers, and other research has found that the overwhelming majority of deaths occur in drug addicts, not patients. In addition, most deaths related to opioid painkillers involve taking a combination of four of five other drugs, which makes them seem more deadly than they are."

But they did say in the case of Tylenol that adverse effects (liver damage) can occur when taking doses not much higher than those reccommended.24 years oldDiagnosed with UC March 2007; yet to go into complete remissionAsacol 4 tablets 3x/day

I suspect a lions share of those Infliximab related deaths have to do with latent tuberculosis issue that was only discovered after the drug hit the market... It was a big deal a few years back when a lot of patients who were totally asymptomatic before starting the drug started dying from tuberculosis, and it turned out they were all latent carriers. Screening patients for tuberculosis before administering Infliximab has become standard procedure since then...

I find it scarier that acetominaphin is on the list. When I'm in that pain fog, I find it hard to remember if I've taken my tylenol OR darvocet. I guess this is a great reason to start writing when I took the last dose on the bottle...

I knew Tylonel could cause liver damage if taken in high doses and that sort of scares me because I take A LOT of Tylonel. I mean I don't take massive doses or anything like that - just the 2 every 4-6 hours. But I can't help but wonder if I am damaging my liver in the meantime ya know? I didn't know about the Remi though - that IS scary!

I knew that about Tylenol too....I always assumed it was from high doses. I think it's fairly common knowledge, re. acetaminophen. I wonder if it is from the latent tb cases, why remicade is on that list. Or it could also be that being on an immune suppressant open one up to a host of other opportunistic infections? Who knows... I suppose some digging coudl turn up the answers, what exactly those Remicade deaths were attributed too. Heck, maybe your GI could even tell you! Suffice to say, the drugs that many of us take are scary- this piece of info is basically why I decided not to try Humira. Bouncing from one drug to another to another...at some point, you have to say "enough!". I find for myself also, I tend to overlook any/all potential dangers with these drugs, & just think of the potential good results. My GI has always told me that these types of drugs, the immune suppressants, carry their own set of potentially serious side effects, & while I believed him, I just never gave it the weight that it deserves. It comes down to the age old question, which is worse, the disease or the "cure"?

Also, note that this ranking is based solely on numbers of deaths in a time period, not on rate per1000 people taking the drug. If drug A has a death rate of 10% but only ten people take it, only one will die. If drug B has a death rate of .001% but a million people take it, 1000 will die. That makes it look as if drug B is more dangerous, which is obviously ridiculous. How many people do you think take Tylenol every year?

They also didn't factor in how many people who are regular drinkers or who had pre-existing cirrhosis took Tylenol and died. This accounts for a large percentage of the Tylenol deaths.

I don't know why the media always has to crunch statistics in the most alarming way possible, but I've learned to read carefully.

wow, scary..........isn't fentanyl one of the drugs now used in the "cocktail" for colonoscopy's? I believe that's what I was given along with another drug or two for my last colonoscopy..........No wonder it worked so well.*******Donna*******

diagnosed with uc 27 years ago. Enojoyed 10 - 12 year remission (approximately 10 of those years without any meds)

anyone who can read objectively can see that the figures are just that- actual deaths in a time period, not per x amount of people taking the drug. The media does tend to present things in an alarming way. However, the actual study was in The American Medical Associations Internal Medicine publication- there's no sales going on there! I don't think this study is an "alarming story", nor is it to sell a product... but it is interesting. Certainly you can agree, Judy- Remicade has been your "wonder drug"- I myself have had gallons of it pumped thru my bloodstream- don't tell me it hasn't crossed your mind "Hey, what exactly is this stuff possibly doing to me???". The implications of being on a newly approved, extremely powerful, immune suppressant long term ought to raise red flags in one's mind! How else is one supposed to make an informed decision?

I agree with Eva Lou.This study is pretty straightforward, which is the reason I find it so alarming.Relatively few people use Remicade, so its appearance on this list highlights the extreme danger is represents.Acetaminophen is probably the mostly commonly used medication, although I expect that the deaths cited here mostly resulted from abusers of opiate/acetaminophen combinations.Most regular users of Tylenol are not at any risk.

As I stated previously, all of the drugs on this list are deadly only when they are abused, except Remicade.Only Remicade (and the other immune suppressors) are deadly when used as prescribed.

I absolutely considered the risks before ever starting Remicade. For me, it was a choice of that or a life that wasn't worth living anyway. I made my choice, and I won't waste time second-guessing myself. Yes, immunosuppressants have a greater risk of death than other drugs because they make many people who take them vulnerable to possibly life-threatening infections. I think we're all aware of that.

My comments were primarily in relation to Tylenol, which is a relatively safe drug. The way they handled the numbers makes it look really dangerous. If all the newer NSAIDS hadn't come out, I'm sure aspirin would be at or near the top of the list, too.

nah, you can't second guess it. I don't regret using Remicade one bit- it made my life liveable again for a good year and a half! Even after it put me in the hospital with strep pneumonia & whole bunch of other infections, I still went back for numerous infusions. Although I was a bit nerved out every single one, I gotta be honest! If it was still working for me, I'd continue with it as long as I could. Uneasily so, but still......diagnosed with UC '02

Eva, my experience has been much different. I've been on Remi for two years. I've had one cold, and that's it. I think it may be impossible to overcome my immune system! I have no trepidation about taking the Remi, only fear that it will stop working for me.

Nope, it's a maintenance drug for me along with my Colazal. I once went two weeks over my time with the Remi, and had started to have flare symptoms already. It took me five years after my initial diagnosis to get into a decent remission. I was so sick I couldn't have a life. So I'm not really pushing to taper the Remi either. Colazal, Imuran and Entocort together only got me down to about 10 stools a day, bleeding at least three days each week, and pain, pain, pain. I'll take Remi as long as it works and as long as I can, then if there are no other drugs available that will work for me I'll have to have surgery.

i read that list and even though it was scary to see those names, those numbers were alot lower than i thought they would be. I mean, over seven years 5000 is really not that much, because there are so many other reasons it could have happened, rather than just drug killing a perosn in and of itself. It kind of made me think about how people who die of Aids don't really die from Aids, but rather from the complications that arise from it, and how it makes it so hard for them to fight off any infection.